News, Views and Analysis

Self-defence in Toronto

Moses Mahilal, who lives with his partner and her mother, arrived home to discover an intruder busy burglarizing the house. He picked up a kitchen knife to protect them and himself, confronted the intruder, the burglar was wounded—and the cops charged Mahilal with aggravated assault.

He’s now facing the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence for defending himself and his loved ones. A man’s home is his castle, eh?

The story makes what I think is a more-than-coincidental link between this case and that of David Chen, the Chinese-Canadian grocer who apprehended a shoplifter, and who was charged with numerous offences by Toronto’s finest. In a surreal exercise of judicial discretion, the shoplifter was given a reduced sentence for testifying against his victim.

It’s impossible not to notice that in both cases reported it was a member of a visible minority group standing up for himself, refusing to be victimized. They’re out of pattern, offending our sense of order. Police and their Crown allies are there to ensure that order is restored.

I’d defend myself against an intruder, of course, as many would, and I know where my kitchen knives are. One person I know, after three burglaries, keeps a baseball bat by her bed. Being of neutral ethnicity, however, I suspect that neither of us would face arrest, much less a trial, for doing what is required when threatened. But that, too, of course, is part of the natural order of things.